Back In Minburi and Thailand Flood Fatigue

I know that it sounds flippant, but I suspect that it is not just me who is developing ‘Thailand flood fatigue’. I do feel guilty for feeling this way because there are so many people who have it worse than I do. I just hate the waiting around; it is so stressful. It is now 2 weeks since we were told to prepare for the worst. Yesterday the Minburi helpline predicted that it will be another five days before the brunt of the water reaches us.

Back in Minburi

In my last post I described how we fled Bangkok to go stay in a hotel in Jomtien. It was such a relief to be away from the floods but it started to feel unnecessary. On the day we left we had been warned that the level of water in our area was going to reach one meter by that afternoon. We left and stayed away for five days but nothing happened. When we arrived home yesterday our street was dry as a bone.

So we are back to Minburi and waiting to see what happens next. The flood barrier that Oa built is gone, and we can’t get the material to build a new one. I’m not convinced it would have been much use anyway. On the plus side, we have already moved most of our belongings upstairs. I also managed to purchase a waterproof covering (they said guaranteed to be 90% waterproof whatever that means) for the car; thanks to those people who suggested I do this. We will probably try to escape again if the floods are coming our way. We have packed bags so that we are ready to go.

No Food and Water in the Shops

We had been warned that many shops in Bangkok are running low on food items. Yesterday we stopped off in Pattaya to stock up on groceries. Even though the floods are not due to hit Pattaya there has been a lot of panic buying there too; I suspect from people driving down from Bangkok to empty the shelves. We went to Big C on Sukhumvit Road, and they were missing many items including bottled water, milk, and dried goods.

Thai Flood Resources

I’ve been following the flood situation on Twitter by searching with the hash tag #thaifloodeng . There are some good people on there working hard to keep everyone informed. I’m sick of hearing about the floods, but I need to keep up to date. I also found this handy website that allows people to follow the situation in their area – this site has the wonderful title ‘Is my house flooded?’. There is also good information on Richard Barrow’s website Thai Travel News.